Silent Echoes
by S4tr1s
Summary: Satris Rhakhaza is a bioticly gifted Alliance soldier, with an N7 rating. He is also one of the first Slayers ever. Follow the adventures of him and his Spec-ops team, Echo Squad, nicknamed the Silent Echoes, throughout the Reaper wars, and discover items of their pasts, their lives, and the tight bond that holds them all together. Rated M for language/violence/sexual references
1. Prologue

**Silent Echoes**

**Prologue**

War. The one thing that has always existed. One way or another. Within the history of every species existing, war is ever-present. Be it the Asari, Turian, Salarian, Krogan or especially Human, war exists.

That is how I was born. After the first contact war, my parents, humans, both of them, however with strange backgrounds, my father being the son of a Drell born of a Justicar, and my mother being one of the first human biotics. This is perhaps the reason I was born with biotics, only coming into contact with Ezo on my twelfth birthday, which only made my powers stronger. As a human, however, I am unique. I don't need implants to control my biotics, and never have. Perhaps this is the reason I was accepted into the alliance military at the age of sixteen, the reason I was forwarded an N7 commendation by admiral Hackett at the age of eighteen, and the reason I achieved N7 rank at the age of twenty-one. I still don't know, however. In fact, i know very little about myself. What I do know is that I am the second ever Slayer-class N7 and one of the five who took the original training. The stories of my friends and squad mates are similar.

S.R.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter one**

**August 5****th****, 2186**

**One week before the reaper invasion**

Noveria. A planet of ice, snow and mountains. Up high, a Cerberus fighter base loomed over the landscape, parts of it jutting out of the mountain in which it was so carefully built years before. To troop's knowledge, no one had gotten in before.

Until now.

A shadow moved across some scaffolding, up above the Cerberus grunts that were unaware of its presence. It looked up. There. A small ledge. That would be perfect for what he was planning to do. A greenish-gray glow began surrounding it. As if it had no fear of falling, it jumped, running on the side of the building. It arrived at the ledge with ease. It unfolded a Javelin sniper rifle from its back and attached it to a tripod. It looked down at the troops searching for its target. It found the centurion with blue stripes on his helmet easily enough. A small square of information popped up in its helmets HUD. It read through the info quickly.

Leo Hardur had joined Cerberus at the age of twenty-two. He had gone up the ranks of the ground troops and had recently been promoted to Lt-commander by the big boss himself, right before his squad had been sent out to guard a base on Noveria. Rumours said that alliance forces were planning on attacking the base and stealing something important. Hardur wouldn't let that happen. He had fought enough battles against alliance troops to feel confident. He opened the face cover of his helmet, lighting a cigarette as he toured the base perimeter. His girlfriend was pregnant, and their child would be born in a few months. Hardur saluted two of his troops while looking over the rail at the frozen landscape. He planned to be a good father, better than his own, who had kicked him out onto the streets when he was fourteen. …Yes, he planned on being a good father…

…It's just too bad he would never get the chance.

Leo Hardur's chest exploded when the silenced rifle shot hit, and he flew over the railing, falling down to the ground, three miles below. If the shot hadn't killed him, the landing would for sure.

On the other end, the tip of the modified Javelin sniper rifle just finished smoking. The sniper lifted his right hand to his ear.

"Target is down."

"Copy that, advancing," the voice at the other end of the line replied.

"Understood," the sniper said, attaching the Javelin to the magnetic attachment on his back as it folded up "See you at the rendezvous point."

The sniper looked down at two assault troopers that risked making his friends life a pain. He waited -one…two…three- their heads fell off, silently. By activating his visors thermal sensor, he just caught the thumbs up from Sky. He nodded to her, slight praise for her clean and silent kill. The Shadow ran ahead, out of his sight. The sniper activated tactical cloak, all the while running along the scaffolding set out on the side of the wall, overlooking the outer area of the Cerberus base. He phased to the lower patrol area, arriving a few seconds before his team. The Paladin hit him on the shoulder.

"You're getting fast, Bio."

"And you're getting slow, Tick."

"Could we get moving?" the Demolisher asked.

"In a sec Jinx, we're waiting for Deck," Sky replied.

"Not anymore," the Project Phoenix Adept said, stepping out of the shadows, "Come on, we have to get in quick."

They hurried into the door Deck rapidly opened, closing and locking it immediately. They would only have a few minutes to get what they had come for. The group rushed through the corridors, guided by Deck, and quickly arrived to their objective: the Armoury. They scurried to the back wall, _Weapons,_ and began to raid the shelves. Bio stopped to look at one in particular, an assault rifle entitled _Harrier_. It looked like an upgrade to one of his favourites, the M96 Mattock. He quickly placed it on his back, letting it fold up. The group then rapidly put on Cerberus armors, replacing their Alliance combat armor. After making sure that they had at least one copy of each weapon, a group composed, to the naked eye, of an assault trooper, a centurion, a nemesis, two phantoms, a combat engineer and a "Phoenix" walked out of the room. They headed back outside, running into a group of grunts who didn't seem to notice them, with Deck leaving them at the exit.

"Why not come with us?" Bio asked.

"I still have work to do here, my friend," Deck replied.

"Huh…" Bio sighed. "Contact me if there's any trouble."

"Ditto."

The team headed to the landing pad, the cloaked shuttles side door opening at their call. They jumped in one-by-one and flew off, Jinx getting in last. Bio took out a detonator from his pocket and activated it. A few seconds later, the shockwave from the explosion caused by the combat armors shook the shuttle lightly. It then flew off towards a dreadnought orbiting the planet.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**August 13****th****, 2186**

**The day of the reaper invasion**

Satris Rahkhaza's eyes slowly opened. His pale greenish-gray gaze glowed slightly in the dim light, the only side-effect of his contact with Ezo on his twelfth birthday. He shook his head to chase away the slight migraine, the last of the hangover from Cratix's success celebration the night before. He looked to his left, and, as he expected, his girlfriend Malyssa was still asleep. Satris got up and dressed quietly. He had no reason to wake on their day off, which also happened to be her birthday. August 13th, 2186. She was twenty four today, and he wanted to make it special. He closed the door and soundproofed it, heading to the kitchen. Satris spent the next hour making a small cake, decorating it, and placing a slice with the breakfast he and his friends had made together late the night before. He put the all on a platter and headed back into the bedroom just in time to catch his girlfriend waking up. He walked over to her and gently placed the platter on her lap.

"Happy birthday, _Siha_", He whispered.

"Aw, you shouldn't have. Come here", she said, opening her arms.

He answered to her invitation and hugged her.

"Eat up, we have friends coming over soon."

"Do they ever miss a birthday?"

"Not to my knowledge."

Malyssa ate everything in front of her, then got dressed and followed Satris down to the front hall of their spacious apartment, gratitude of the Alliance military and N7 program. They only had to wait a few minutes before Cratix, Erein, Graven and Miyajii arrived, each one carrying a gift, or, in Cratix's case, six gifts. The couple welcomed their four friends and brought them in. Cratix immediately ran off to upgrade their armour, weapons and whatever else he could find (once it was the blender). It took him about ten minutes. He then passed to testing their Omni-tools, updating and upgrading them, and finally tested their powers, tech and biotic alike. Satris finally caught his arm and stopped him.

"Crat, cool it. It's Maly's birthday. Why the hurry?"

"You haven't heard, have you?" The aussie said.

"What?"

"A fleet is coming here, a massive fleet."

"Huh. So Shepard was right."

"Yeah. Prep to be called on duty any minute now."

"Maly…?"

"I told Miyajii to notify her."

"Ah, damn it."

As if on cue, the vid-comm ringer went off. The two friends hurried to the war room, joining the others. In the image box, the figure of admiral Hackett could be seen. The admiral acknowledged the arrivals.

"1st Major Rahkhaza, I presume you know what is going on?"

"Cratix informed me."

"The reapers are now on radar, they'll be arriving soon. I recommend you all pack your bags, get in gear, and head to your ship. I'll be contacting Admiral Anderson-"

An explosion could be heard in the background, and the line went out. Through the window, what looked like a hand could be seen descending on the other end of Ottawa. Satris and Malyssa quickly packed their bags with the help of their friends, put on their Shadow and Slayer armors, grabbed their weapons, an N7 Valiant, M-11 Wraith, M-6 Carnifex and for Malyssa, and a modded M-98 Black widow, M-96 Harrier, N7 Piranha and M-77 Paladin for Satris, as well as two N7 Hurricanes each. They both took their monomolecular blades and placed them on the magnetic attachments on their backs along with their guns. The group then rushed to the couples Kodiak shuttle, and Satris then entered his Trident fighter ship, and they flew off. In the shuttle, Cratix put on his orange and silver Inferno armour, leaving the helmet off, and took the reins. Graven put on his black and green T5-V Battlesuit, Erein her green and dark blue Fury combat outfit, and Miyajii her yellow and white N7 Ajax armour.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**August 13****th****, 2186**

**The day of the reaper invasion**

It took a few minutes to take in the devastation while getting there. The two ships flew side by side in the direction of the spaceport. They were lucky; they almost got there without any problems.

Almost.

Few hundred meters from the spaceport, a reaper descended out of nowhere and began shooting at buildings. Some debris hit the Kodiak's left propulsor, and the shuttle went spinning out of control, bashing into Satris' Trident, making them both careen to the ground. Satris managed to get his fighter under control, narrowly avoiding a crash-landing, but the others weren't so lucky. The transport shuttle rammed into the corner of a floored parking-lot, passed directly through, and fell like a rock towards the streets.

Cratix managed to crash the Kodiak into a building, which would allow the passengers to have a somewhat easily defendable position. Cratix turned around to see how the team was going. Everyone was fine, except for Miyajii. In fact, he couldn't even see Miyajii. But when he noticed the right side door, or lack of, and the angle of the shuttle, he guessed where she had gone. He rushed out only to see a bunch of husks running towards her unconscious body, three stories lower. To attempt to jump would be suicide. The sound of automatic rifle shots coming from right behind him, and the explosions of the husks' heads, made him turn around to see Malyssa reloading her Valiant sniper rifle. She tapped Erein on the shoulder. The Fury took everything in in a couple milliseconds, phased down, grabbed her friend, and phased back up. The group got ready for the unavoidable arrival of enemies.

The radio came to life as it received Satris' call, and the group huddled around

"You guys Ok?"

"Yeah", Graven replied, But Miyajii got thrown out of the shuttle, and she's out cold."

"Understood…I'm going to fly over to the _Infiltrator,_ get a shuttle and some backup."

"Get back soon. I have a feeling the reapers are going to be crawling all over this place very, very soon. And unfortunately Jinx is the only one who knows how to operate that supply pylon of hers, so more ammo is out of the equation."

"Unfortunately. I'll try to keep in contact."

"Just hurry up, would you?"

"Got it, Bio out."

The team got ready for the opposing forces. Cratix activated his special tech armor, and it glowed to life. It wasn't super special, aside from the added visor and mini Omni-shields on his forearms. Graven activated his armor's Devastator mode, Erein her annihilation field, and finally Malyssa activated her cloaking and began climbing up a beam to scout around. Graven and Cratix took out their N7 Typhoons, modified by Cratix to be more like Miniguns, with enhanced clip sizes and fire rates. The two let the heavy weapons fall to their hip height, making them easier to hold, while Erein took out her dual Hurricanes.

High above, Malyssa had just finished setting up her sniper rifles' tripod. She took out her Valiant and attached it, adjusting the optics, checking the mods Cratix had installed weeks ago, etc.

And so they waited.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**August 13****th****, 2186**

**The day of the reaper invasion**

Satris flew rapidly towards the spaceport. He could see soldiers waving to him as he flew by, desperate for help. In most instances he used his Trident's weapon systems to rid them of the worst of the reaper forces, but sometimes had to keep flying, only dropping some supply crates and rockets to help them out. With this pace, he arrived at his ship, the _Infiltrator,_ in half an hour. He docked his ship in the dreadnought's hangar and rushed to the command center. As he ran, the VI's voice could be heard: _The commanding officer is ashore. XO Briskoe stands relieved._

Charles "Spark" Briskoe was one of Satris's oldest friends, alongside Cratix, Decrurryn and Miyajii. When Satris rushed into the war room, he was at the ready.

"What happened?" He asked.

"A reaper happened."

"I don't understand?"

"We were flying here when a reaper came out of nowhere and started shooting at buildings. Some debris hit the Kodiak. The rest of the team is downed and Miya's hurt. I need a shuttle, some troops and some ammo for them."

"Sate, we need to leave, now."

"NOT WITHOUT THE REST OF THE TEAM!" Satris screamed.

"Uh… Ok fine. But the crew has to get to their stations. The only soldiers that can be spared are Elyx and myself."

"That's more than enough."

The two rushed back to the hangar, Spark notifying Elyx to meet them on the fly. At the hangar, the two rushed into the Kodiak Elyx was waving at them from and flew off in the direction of their comrades. Satris fired up the radio system.

"Crat..." silence "...Crat can you hear me?"

'Loud an' clear."

"What's going on? I hear a lot of gunfire."

"A bunch of civilians and a few soldiers managed to find us. We're gonna need a few more shuttles, or some cover fire as we run to the spaceport."

"Spark, you hearing this?"

"Yep."

"Can we cover 'em?"

"If Cratix and Graven get in the shuttle and use the turrets, yeah."

"That's a negative, Cratix cried out, my Omni-shields are gonna be useful for protecting these people."

"Ok, so Graven can use the turret. Hey, his shoulder launcher will be useful too", Spark decided.

Satris thought for a minute. When he was done, he looked up at Spark.

"I want you to pilot the shuttle", Satris said, and he then turned his head to Elyx, "And I want you down there with me."

"Understood", the N7 Brawler replied, getting out of his seat.

The two checked their weapons, and then jumped out of the shuttle when the door opened. They both landed spectacularly, with Elyx creating a shockwave with his boots, and Satris landing with a nova. The first thing Elyx did was activate his Omni-fists (Omni-blades much like those of a batarian) and shock-boots. He then dove into a group of husks, and proceeded to smash the synthetic life out of them. He smashed one against the wall and turned it's little gray-and-blue head into sludge. When one fell to the ground, he stomped it and blew up its chest, head or limbs. He did this with any group of enemies he could find. Satris took a less direct approach, phasing from floor to floor of a nearby building, killing what few enemies he ran into with his sword, and setting up his sniper post on the roof. From there he proceeded to find his friends, using his rifle as a pair of binoculars to scope things out. He found them bunkered down in a mall, keeping the civilians well behind them. They were doing well, and the soldiers they had run into were holding their own nicely. The group had, luckily, found some supply depots, so ammo was no longer a problem. Satris activated his helmet's communicator.

"Cratix, I see you. Uploading your coordinates to the shuttle. It should arrive in a few seconds. I'll be right behind it."

"Are you going to try gliding again, mate?"

"Indeed."

"Oh god. Please… just don't fall again, right?"

"You sound like my mother."

Satris walked to the opposite edge of the roof, turned around, took a running start and… leaped.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**August 13****th****, 2186**

**The day of the reaper invasion**

Satris' body glowed a greenish-gray hue, the same color as his eyes. Just like all his biotics, for that matter. Satris had to put his mind back to work, until he realised he was instinctively doing the necessary to stay afloat whilst moving. He angled himself in a diagonal position, his head in the front and his feet behind, and spread his arms to the side slightly.

He began to think of the grandeur of what he was doing, gliding like a bird of prey. To his knowledge, only the Asari Justicar or Ardat-Yahkshi could do so. And they were the strongest biotics of the species with natural biotics, not to mention some of the most powerful! Perhaps the fact that his great-grandmother on his father's side was a Justicar, and that she fell in love with and gave birth to a Drell, and a male at that. Then he fell in love with a human, which gave birth to his father. And his mother being one of the first human biotics, although she didn't receive implants. This gene pool had given him the extremely powerful biotics of all, the nervous system of an Asari (with a bit of human and Drell), the eidetic memory, strength, speed, agility and comfortableness in arid locations of a Drell (as well as their hyoid bone), and the overall appearance of a human. At least, so it was to his knowledge. Not to mention the strange color of his biotics, that matched his glowing eyes perfectly.

His attention came back to the outside world as he realised he was above his friends. He stopped moving and used his visor's zoom-in function to assess the situation. When he noticed he was directly above most of the enemies his friends were facing, he smirked. He had always wondered what it would be like to charge from high up in the air. He looked down, picked his target in the center of the thick, put his arms back, bellowed and charged.

The cannibal he had set his sights on was crushed like a pancake, and the shockwave from his smash onto the ground took out most of the other enemies, not to mention a fair-sized crater. He picked off the couple survivors with his sword, phasing to them and cutting off their heads. For the last one, he stabbed through the chest, allowing him to study it. It looked like a batarian with perhaps a human corpse for a left arm, with the feet wrapped around some type of auto-cannon. Cratix walked up behind.

"We call them cannibals," he said.

"Why?"

"They eat their dead; it gives them some type of scabby armor."

"Huh. Where's Graven?"

"In the shuttle. The second one you ordered is almost here, they said it would take about a minute."

"Finally, some good news. How many civilians?"

"Nine."

"Good, good. That means we can all fit in the shuttles."

Satris got up and walked towards the group, thinking about what he had just seen. Malyssa ran up to him and jumped, wrapping her arms around his neck and almost knocking him over.

"Easy, Maly, you're chocking me," Satris rasped.

"Get here faster next time," she said as she let go and punched him on the shoulder.

He chuckled.

"Will do."

He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in beside him as the second shuttle arrived, escorted by two Tridents. The ops team got into one shuttle, and the soldiers and civilians got into the other. A few minutes later, they had docked on the _Infiltrator_, and without any other problems, to boot. Satris walked over to the intercom.

"This is the commanding officer speaking. I want all chief personnel in the war room in two hours for a meeting. Major Rahkhaza, out."

Satris began the long walk to his room to get cleaned up.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**Evening of the reaper invasion**

Satris was looking at the floor with his chin in his hands, while sitting on one of the many benches placed around his ship. His elbows were digging into his thighs, causing marks on his skin. He was thinking about the meeting. It had been less than helpful, what with most of his chief of personnel clawing his head off for going and helping his team. '_It was too risky'_ they said. He had told them to go find someone who gave half a shit. The meeting had ended with him leaving to go talk to his team and check on Miyaji. They had told him to come back, like they were his parents. They had said that they were going to report to admiral Hackett. He had asked them if they thought the admiral would listen to them, who had known few hardships and were used to giving orders without doing anything, or a prized soldier the admiral had personally given an N7 promotion to. That had shut the unhappy ones up. He had checked on Miyaji shortly after and had found, much as he expected, Cratix at her side. She was still out cold, bruises showing now that her armour was off. Her robotic arm was on a side table, leaving only what was left of her upper arm that had been cut halfway by a crazed Vorcha when she was 15, during a trip on Omega. It had had to be cut further to stop infection, as it had looked like her arm had taken a trip in a paper shredder. Satris shuddered at the thought. He did not want to see that, ever. He got up and looked at his watch. 7:30. He decided to go eat, thinking he might see his friends. He got up and walked in the direction of the cafeteria.

* * *

Satris looked up from his meal. He had not seen any of his friends, aside from Malyssa. She looked at him over the table. He smiled. She smiled back. They talked about everything and anything, as they had always done. The room slowly started to empty, leaving them alone aside from one or two other soldiers in the corners of the room. Malyssa looked around to make sure all eyes were off her and cartwheeled one-handedly over the table, landing neatly beside her boyfriend. He looked up at her, signaling her to sit down. He looked in her eyes.

"It's still your birthday, what would you like to do?" he asked.

"Hmmm… I don't know…"

She bent over him and kissed him. He asked again.

"…Anything you want," he told her.

She leaned towards him, her mouth edging towards his ear.

"Well, it is still my birthday," she whispered.

She got up and walked towards the door, making sure to roll her hips slightly exaggeratedly. She stopped at the door and looked back at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes. She disappeared the next second. Satris smiled to himself. He wouldn't keep her waiting. He got up and followed her.

When he opened the door to their quarters, all he could see was black. Malyssa walked up from beside the door and pulled him in gently. All Satris could see were her dark silver eyes and the natural bluish sheen of her raven-black hair. He smiled to himself. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Satris looked at Malyssa who was sleeping beside him. He ran his fingers up and down her bare back. He could still remember when he first met her. After the emotions of the day, he decided to let the memory rise up. It would allow him to relax a little, or at least, it usually did. He sighed as he felt himself be lifted into a different world.

* * *

_Satris looks up at the ceiling. He can't sleep. Insomnia is a problem that has affected him as long as he can remember, but usually he shrugs it off. The violent storm happening outside doesn't help. He gives in and gets up, getting dressed. He puts on a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt with blue stripes going down the edge of the front, and the side of the shoulders. The symbol of the alliance is printed in silver in his right breast. He walks up to the door, opens it, and goes into the corridor. He wanders the academy for a little while, surprising himself when his feet lead him to the bar. He usually avoids this place, as alcohol is something the taste and after-effects of which he has never enjoyed. He puts his right hand on his forehead and sighs, shaking his head. He walks up to the counter and looks at what's available. He orders an iced lemonade, glad there isn't nothing but alcohol. He walks up to the utensil dispenser and takes a spoon. Eating iced lemonade with a spoon is an old habit of his. He leans on the counter, looking around him. He's surprised to see that there is only one other person. He had expected more to be up, stressed or nervous about the promotion ceremony the next day. He shrugs._ Oh well, more room for me to choose from,_ he thinks. He surprises himself when he decides to go sit down with the other person. He walks up to her._

"_You mind if I sit here?" he asks_

_She shrugs, leaving her gaze where it is, staring out the window._

"_Go ahead," she replies._

_Satris takes a seat and looks more thoroughly at the stranger. She can't be any older than him; most probably she's younger, maybe eighteen. She's wearing a shirt with the same design as his, only it stops halfway down, showing of her abdomen. Her loose yoga pants look expensive; she certainly hadn't gotten them here. He tries to start up a conversation._

"_You come here often?" he asks._

"_No."_

"_How long have you been here?"_

"_A year."_

"_You want me to be quiet?"_

"…"

"_Look, I'll just keep trying to get through to you until i succeed, you leave or you tell me to stop."_

_She stares at him like he's an alien, or a figment of her imagination. Satris finally gets a good look at her face. He looks in her dark silver eyes and smiles. He then proceeds to taking in the rest of her. Her long raven-black hair, her face and her newly appearing smile. She's easily the most beautiful thing he has ever seen._

"_See? It's not that hard. What's your name?"_

"_Malyssa," she says just before she smiles again._

"_Nice to meet you."_

"_Nice to meet you too."_

"_Why are you here tonight? Nervous about the ceremony?"_

_She turns her gaze back to the raging ocean, but the smile is still visible._

"_No."_

"_Why, then?"_

"_Thinking about my friends, my family, and about the fact that no one will…"_

"_Will…?"_

"_It's nothing."_

"_Come one, tell me."_

"_Just the fact that it's my birthday tomorrow and no one will even wish me a happy one."_

_Satris looks at his watch. 11:58. He looks back at her._

"_Wait just two minutes and I guarantee someone will."_

_He gets up and goes back to the bar. He had touched her shoulder to get her attention when he asked if he could sit and had used that to get a small sense of her by momentarily part-joining their nervous systems. It had allowed him to find out what she liked to drink a few minutes later. He smiles and thanks his Asari great grand-mother. He asks the bar-droid for a blueberry smoothie. He promptly pays for it and heads back. He looks at his watch. 12:00. He sits back down and hands her the drink._

"_Happy birthday, Malyssa."_

_She smiles and then looks at him in surprise when she sees what the drink is._

"_How…?" she asks._

"_Let's just say Asari ancestors have their uses" he chuckles._

_She looks at him doubtfully. He can guess why._

"_Yes, I have Asari ancestors, and yes, I'm a guy"_

"_How…?"_

"_Long story, I should tell you sometime."_

_He gets up to leave. She grabs his arm as he begins to walk away._

"_Wait! I-" she stammers "I didn't get your name," she says._

"_Satris. Satris Rahkhaza."_

"_Well Satris, thank you for the smoothie", she says, "And see you around!" she cries as he walks out, tossing him a piece of paper. _

_He looks back and smiles at her. He opens up the piece of paper. It has her name and room number in it, as well as her rank. N2. He smiles. Something tells him they are indeed going to see each other again. He walks into his room, gets undressed, and falls asleep as soon as his head touches the pillow._

* * *

Satris sighed as he felt himself be absorbed by the real world. A happy memory was just what he had needed at that moment. He looked over at Malyssa. Not much of her had changed since he had first met her. The only noticable difference was the bluish tinge of her hair that had been accentuated further. He passed his arm over her, falling asleep not long after.


	8. Chapter 7

Satris sighed contently. After the tough day, he was hoping to sleep well. The night started out as usual, with him having trouble to sleep, but he overcame the problem and fell asleep quickly. He hoped it would be peaceful. He was horribly wrong.

He fell into a nightmare like a rock into an ocean. He twisted and turned in his sleep, mumbling to himself. Beside him, Malyssa slept peacefully, unaware of her boyfriend's troubles. Satris woke up startled, bellowing out a fearful "NO!" before noticing his emplacement. He already could only remember bits and pieces of the message. He was sure it was a message from what he could remember. Images of war, reapers annihilating races, a silver, mirror-like orb just like the Ezo sphere he had come into contact with on his twelfth birthday. And, finally, a reaper looking at him in an ocean. Only it wasn't a reaper. It was organic, covered in bony plates with small triangles consisting of three disks of light for eyes. A greenish-gray light. The last thing he could remember was a low, gravelly voice saying "C_ome_".

He looked at his bedside clock. The digits showed the time was 1:30. He sighed. He decided to get up, as he often did when he had cases of insomnia. He got dressed in a t-shirt and training pants, made of a loose and soft yet durable material. He walked over to Malyssa and kissed her on the forehead.

"I'm going to train," he whispered.

She mumbled something in her sleep and rolled over onto her back as he walked out into the corridor. He went down to the gym, then over to the combat training room. He looked around. It was such a familiar sight to him, the pillars, black as coal, the lights in the room, both normal and blacklit, mainly for him and Erein, who had different ways of training compared to the others, as well as for the rest of the team. He sighed. He had come here so often he had literally surpassed recorded limits, for all races, in speed, strength and agility, though only once or twice for each. He had nothing else to do, so he walked over to the radio and played songs from his Omnitech. The orange shape glowed around his left hand, activating a string of songs, old of close to two centuries. He walked over to the holographic command console, illuminating the blacklights. He would use some light until he felt like it. He activated the training protocol, turning on 30 sparring bots. He could see somewhat, which was more than enough in most circumstances. He looked around the room. Shadows moved here and there. He closed his eyes and listened. Footsteps, creaking metallic parts… he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, back flipping to land on the nearest bot, trapping its head in between his legs, then flipping forwards, effectively smashing its head into the next one, taking two out in one move. He then delivered a series of punches and kicks, taking out ten more in the blink of an eye. He hopped up and brought his fist down onto the floor, creating a biotic shockwave. The last remaining few were brought down with tactics worthy of a trained Drell assassin, hiding in the shadows, breaking a few necks and taking the last one out with five punches to the chest, and elbow as well, and an uppercut to the 'jaw'. He froze as the lights suddenly came on, hurting his eyes, as he heard a clunk of metal on metal. He sighed as a feminine voice started speaking.

"Not bad."

"Miyajii, shouldn't you be with Cratix?"

"He fell asleep an hour ago"

Satris turned to look at his friend. Her bruises were still all too visible, although the ones on her right arm were covered up by the robotics of her metal forearm. He shook his head.

"How did you know I was here?"

"Are you kidding? You're always here!"

"Not always."

"Ah, shuddup. Look in your locker; I think Cratix finished 'em."

"Did he now…"

Satris walked over to his locker and opened the door. A small box was visible, nearly hidden by the rest of Satris's gear. He took it out and opened it. Inside was nothing special, only two of his forearm bracers. At least, that would be what most would think. He put them on and hovered over the detail. Cratix really aimed to please. He then activated their hidden secret. He flicked his wrist while clenching his fists and two long, thin ornate blades sprang out from the inside, the same side as his palms. He smiled. His friend never did disappoint. He then practiced with his new weapons, which would replace the Omni-blades he disliked so much, in full, dim and no light against sparring bots. He then walked back to his room, leaving the bracers on his wrists, and replacing his current ones in the wardrobe with the modified ones. He undressed, got in bed, and fell asleep. He sighed contently, and Malyssa cuddled against him. He fell into a deep, dreamless sleep quickly.


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**The morning after the reaper invasion**

Satris looked at Malyssa move slowly in her sleep beside him. He smiled. She always could fall asleep no matter what, and he envied her for that. And it had been a bit of a blow, the reapers arriving on her birthday. But she was a survivor, one of the strongest people he knew, and it was one of her qualities that made him love her even more, not to mention her natural beauty, that she didn't try to cover with makeup. She always left her face plain, except on very, very special occasions. He smiled again as he thought of this superficial fact about her. He shook his head, still smiling. He folded over the part of the covers that were on him and got out.

He headed to the cabin's small bathroom and got undressed, turning on the hot water. He always felt comfortable in water, and he felt just as comfortable in dry, arid locations. _I guess having human and Drell ancestors can be useful_, he thought. He almost jumped when the opening of the door interrupted his train of thought. The two halves parted and there was Malyssa, who had, from the sleepy look on her face, only just woken up, and gone straight to the shower. Satris stared dumbly for a moment, then began walking out, mumbling an "I was just finishing" on the way. She grabbed his wrists and turned him around. He followed the pull on his limb and looked at her. It was surprisingly rare he got to take her in this much, the black lines on her forehead and neck, on her chest, starting at the top of her shoulder, if you looked from the front -proof of her Quarian heritage- her lithe figure, and her eyes. The eyes that had fascinated him the most about her the first time they had met, six years earlier. She leaned on him.

"Stay, please," she whispered

"You need only ask, _Siha._"

Malyssa almost smiled as she closed the door with a flick of her wrist. She held on to Satris as the hot water ran down their bodies. He could guess she was more shaken that she would admit, especially if he asked. He sighed, a sound somewhere in between happiness and the sorrow that he felt for her. He closed his arms around her body and rested his chin on her shoulder. She was slightly taller than one would expect a Quarian to be, standing at a good six feet, and he was only 6' 1", only standing about an inch above her. This thought made him think of the others. Miyajii, the shortest of the group aside from Decrurryn, 5' 8", Cratix, 6' 2", which was surprising if you considered his disease that attacked his muscles, taking down their strength and atrophying them, although he had found a temporary solution when he was 5. Erein matched Maly in size, and Graven. Graven, who towered above them all at his whopping 6' 9", size that was matched by his muscles. Not to forget the extra three inches he gained when he put on his armor.

He came out of his reverie when Malyssa turned her face up and kissed him. They abandoned themselves in it, cutting out the world. Satris lifted his eyebrow questioningly. She nodded. He looked down; closing his eyes, then opened them with a jolt, the whites now black as space. He heard Malyssa sigh contently, almost euphorically, as she always did when he joined their nervous systems, an ability passed down by his Asari great-grandmother. He looked down at her and kissed her on the neck, going up slowly to her cheeks, then her lips. They might have stayed there for hours had the vid-comm alarm not blared. He walked to the exit, telling Malyssa to stay, that she needed a shower, a real one. He went over to his closet and began putting on clothes as well as turning of the video feed of himself before answering. A familiar voice with an accent somewhere in between French and Russian could be heard.

"Satris, did you turn off the video feed again?"

"Sorry Ferün, I'm not dressed."

"Well hurry up then!"

"Okay, done," Satris said as he finished putting on a t-shirt and activated the video feed. The image of a Quarian in a suit dark on the head, chest and forearms, and light on the rest of his body popped up. "What's up?"

"I was hoping to say happy birthday to my cousin."

"She's in the shower."

"Ah… I Heard about Earth, sorry friend."

"Don't say anything about it to her, please."

"Wasn't planning to."

"Thank you. We're heading to the citadel; I guess you can't join us?"

"Sorry, Admiral Zorah needs me for some mission, infiltration I think."

"Oh, I forgot to ask last time, how is Tali going? Anything more going on between you two?"

"I was curious as well," Malyssa said while walking towards them, water dripping down on to her shirt from her still-wet hair, "I haven't seen her in a while, and she hasn't sent me any messages."

She shook her head, sending water flying from her head, with a fair amount landing on Satris. He lifted his arms in a vain attempt to protect himself from this aquatic assault, laughing hard. She walked over to him and leaned her head on his shoulder, and he wrapped his arm around her upper body, passing over her arm. The hologram of Ferün passed its hand behind its head, scratching its neck, Satris could tell he was nervous, although he had kept his tone light. He sighed inwardly.

"Alright Ferün, what's going on?"

"Nothing, it's just…"

"It's just…"

"Nothing, forget it, it doesn't matter."

"If you say so," Satris sighed.

"Well, to change the subject, happy birthday Maly. You look beautiful as ever."

"Thank you Fer," Malyssa breathed out, keeping her tone light although her face told a different story.

"Well, I'll be going then," Ferün said while stretching his neck, "I don't want to keep you."

Satris nodded, and then touched the 'end call' key on the console. He looked in Malyssa's eyes and she looked into his.

"Shall we get ready for the citadel?"

"Eh, why not."

The truth was she hated having to stop staring at his eyes. She loved looking into the greenish-gray depths, following the uneven curve of the very thin ring of dark yellow that went around both of his pupils, only just separated by a little bit of the primary color of his irises. She looked away before she got caught up in any more staring. Satris smiled.

He walked over to the wardrobe, opening it to look at clothes. He hesitated between jeans, a t-shirt and a black leather jacket with the N7 badge sewed onto the right breast, or a dark-red-and-black suit worn by Drell -usually assassins- that he had received from his father the year before but had never had the chance to wear. He finally decided on the latter, though not without encouragement from Malyssa, who had decided to wear a dress. He put on the pants, the shirt -if it could be called one- and the gloves, finishing with the boots. He opened a little box he had received alongside it, looking at its contents; a pair of dark red shades that matched the outfit perfectly. He smiled, thinking of his father who always knew what went well with what. He shook his head and put them on. The last thing he grabbed on the way out were his dog tags, attached to a key-hook in front of the door, which he put on swiftly, letting the N7 insignia shine on his chest.

* * *

Satris looked up at the giant arms of the citadel through the dreadnought's CIC's canopy. Their shape was not entirely new to him -nor was it for any of his team- but it always took his breath away. He lost sight of all but one as the ship neared the ring-shaped base; the presidium. They docked quickly, with no delays other than a docking officer demanding their ID. He looked at his team as they walked down the hallways of the _Infiltrator_ to get to the exit. Graven, the 6' 9" giant carrying the blind Erein on his shoulder, Cratix walking side by side with Miyajii, the tubes filled with the cure to his muscle degeneration disease only just visible on his neck. His gaze turned to look in the eyes of his commander and he nodded; a nod that Satris promptly returned. He stopped as he noticed the doors. They had arrived at the exit in record time, under two minutes.

* * *

The small group headed to their lodging on the citadel; a fair-sized house in the presidium they shared expenses to keep, as staying in a hotel was too costly when you considered the fact they were her many times a year. As soon as they had gone inside, the Vid-Comm alarm blared, and Satris hurried to answer it. The image of admiral Hackett sprang to life.

"Hello Major," the hologram's voice said, "How are thing at your end?"

"Fairly good, Admiral."

"Glad to hear it. Listen, Admiral Anderson has a mission for you, he'll brief you later, but I needed to talk to you first, as it will be no simple task."

"I'm listening," Satris said, his curiosity piqued. "What have you got for me?"

"Commander Shepard will be arriving on the citadel tomorrow, and Anderson wants you to be trailing him when he leaves."

"Why, did he break the law? Has something happened?"

"No, none of that, it's just the Admiral wants you and your team to be like his guardian angels."

"Ok, but I'm guessing you had something else to tell me, no?"

"Indeed. I disagree with this mission, as the _Normandy_ is a stealth ship, and the _Infiltrator_ is not, and Anderson wants you to follow him unnoticed, which, at the moment, is impossible for you."

"But let me guess," Satris said as he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, a look of slight annoyance spreading on his face, "You have a solution."

"Indeed."

"Which is…?"

"When we made the modifications to the Normandy after it was handed in to us, plans were made to build others. Because of the attack of the reaper forces, the project is on an indefinite hiatus, but one was finished, outfitted, and tested two days before the arrival. And I want you to have it if you are going to be following Shepard and protecting him and his crew."

"Then tell Admiral Anderson to send me the dossier and that I accept on the condition that I get this SR2 and that I can hand-pick my crew from my existing one."

"I'll relay the info, Hackett out."

The hologram faded out, and soon Satris was looking at the blank communicator, still trying to take it all in. He walked out into the living room that was filled with his friends, and told them what he had just heard. When he was done, he looked at each of them in turn.

"I like the idea of getting a new ship," Cratix said, his English accent making him sound well and jolly, "And just think of it; an SR2. God, as soon as I got in the Normandy to help retrofit it I wanted one."

"I don't know about this Satris, but if you feel like we can handle it, I'm in." This was Erein, who always seemed to feel like she had to prove herself because she was blind.

"I'm in," Graven said, his heavy Russian accent making him sound more serious than his face would. "I might finally get some interesting enemies to fight."

Miyajii and Malyssa both said they were in without a doubt, which closed the matter. As there was nothing else important enough to keep them, Satris declared that they all had the afternoon off. Cratix and Miyajii immediately went to find a taxi to head to the shopping district, Graven and Erein decided to go to Purgatory, and Malyssa stayed behind with Satris, who gave the excuse had some researching to do, which wasn't a total lie. He jogged up the stairs to his room and turned on his computer, entering a research engine, looking up a Garret Bryson. When he found the person he was looking for as well as his address here on the citadel, he rushed out the front door, his girlfriend right on his heels.

**Author's note: Satris's outfit is the same as Thane's dlc outfit in ME2, with the only difference being that the two middle fingers of the gloves are separate**


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**The day after the reaper invasion**

Satris had met Dr. Garret Bryson once before, when he had just gotten his N7 promotion. It had been a graduate party, and many –perhaps even all– were there, drinking, playing games, chatting, and doing other activities. He had stayed in a corner booth with his friends, the ones that were now his squad; Malyssa, Cratix, Miyajii, Graven, Erein, Spark, Decrurryn and Elyx. He had been called aside by a bearded man in his forty's at least, one who had told him about a task force named Aurora, one Satris had been asked to join. He had politely refused, but had kept contact with Bryson and had even helped them when there were dangerous tasks they needed done, but he had not truly joined Aurora, nor had he planned to.

Not until now.

The nightmare the night before had reminded Satris of Bryson, and his offer. Now that he would be getting a new ship and a new mission, he had decided he would use his spare time finding out about his dream, and what he had seen in it. And he could guess Dr. Bryson would have an idea of what he was seeing.

After rushing out of the house, he called the first rapid transit vehicle that passed by and hopped in with Malyssa, giving the pilot the address. On the way, they passed by views they had not seen before; the C-sec command, one of the new shopping districts –Satris was sure he saw Cratix somewhere in the thick–, the entrance of Purgatory, and others. The flight took only about ten minutes with the extremely light traffic, very quick considering Bryson's address was nowhere near their own.

The apartment looked big from the outside, but Satris guessed that there would be equipment, tools and junk lying all over the place. When he looked in a window, he saw that he had guessed right. In one room there was a large galaxy map –similar to the ones used in alliance ships but much larger–, scanning equipment, microscopes, and lots of other random objects placed in a closet with a glass door. He saw a movement in a corner; Bryson was looking at something in a microscope. What it was, he couldn't tell. He walked over to Malyssa, who was standing at the front door. He rang the doorbell once and heard a chime go off inside.

"Coming, coming," a gruff, startled voice cried out.

Rapid footstep where heard, joined by grumbled swearing. Dr. Bryson walked up to the door and opened, his frown turning into a look of surprise when he saw who was at the door.

"Major Rahkhaza, lieutenant Elvezi, I–I must say I'm surprised to see you here. I didn't think any of my team had contacted you, and I know I didn't–"

"None of your team contacted me Garret; I came of my own accord. And why the anxiety? I'm not here to arrest you," Satris paused, suddenly realising why his friend might be nervous. "Or is that why you're nervous? Been doing anything not-so-legal in the past little while?"

"No, not at all," Bryson relaxed, both facially and in his tone, "I've just been on a tight schedule recently. Oh, where are my manners, come on in, both of you," he said as he stepped out of the doorframe, ushering them in.

The three stepped into the apartment and Bryson brought them to the living room, then left them to get drinks. He came back with coffee for himself and tea for his guests. They thanked him and took slow sips of the hot liquid. Bryson looked at them both, his face becoming serious.

"So I guess you aren't just here for a friendly visit, are you."

"Unfortunately, no," Satris replied, "I'm here because I've gotten a new mission from Alliance command, and I'm getting a new ship. I was thinking of joining Aurora and searching for what you need while completing it." He leaned closer, dropping his voice to a whisper. "And I had a weird dream last night, thought you might want to know what it was, you could probably shed some light on it."

"I'll try."

"Is Ann here?" Malyssa asked, her first words since they had left the house.

"She's out shopping, but considering she's been gone since ten, my guess is she'll be back soon-"

He was interrupted by the sound of the door opening and Ann Bryson calling out "Dad? I'm home."

"Ann, come see who came to visit," He replied. "I think you might be happy to find out who it is."

"Oh, who is it then-" she broke off as she walked into the living room, "Satris! Malyssa! It's great to see you!" she cried out, running up to them, hugging them each in turn. "When did you get here? We were thinking of visiting, but then we heard about Earth and-" she broke off again to catch her breath.

"Well, calm down, it's not such a big deal. I was just visiting so my team and I can join Aurora," Satris replied. "And to talk to your father, I want some tests run."

"Okay, I'll leave you two to it then. Maly, I found this…" Ann's voice died down as she walked away, Malyssa in her stead.

Satris looked at Garret. "Shall we get on with it? I would like to see the lab."

"Sure, follow me."

They passed some pieces of a reaper on the way to the lab, and Satris looked questioningly at them. They entered the lab and Garret gave a small tour.

"So this is the galaxy map, we use it to track down artifacts, over there we have our scanning equipment-" he was cut off by the shrieks of a robotic head Satris had poked. "Please don't touch that. Over here we have the 'laboratory' part of the lab and over –come over here; I want you to see this."

He pointed to a reflective silver orb, placed in a stasis module. Satris stared at it. It was the exact same size, shape and material as the Ezo orb he had run into on his twelfth birthday. He pointed at it.

"That… That's an Ezo orb, right?"

"Ezo orb? That's an artifact, belonging to what I believe to be the true Leviathan of Dis. I presume you know about it?"

Satris nodded.

"Well, it must have been killed by something, and I believe that whatever that was is the true Leviathan of Dis. I don't know what it looks like, where it lives, anything, but one of my team found it while out on a mission. I wanted to study it," he paused. "Wait, you said an Ezo orb? Why?"

"Because on my twelfth birthday I had a run-in with the exact same thing. I always thought it was Ezo because it made my biotics stronger."

Garret froze, then rushed to a scanner and pulled out a needle from a compartment that popped out. He walked over to Satris.

"Pull up your sleeve."

Satris did as he was told, showing the veins of his inner elbow. Garret quickly jabbed the needle into one and drew it back out just as quickly. He walked back to the machine and let a drop of blood drip onto a little glass platform that had slid out. He looked at the screen that opened up, showing the readings. His eyes opened wide, and he walked back to Satris while opening his Omni-tech. He scanned his entire body with it, then looked at the readings.

"Major… was that orb you encountered on your twelfth birthday exactly like that one? And if I recall one of our earlier conversations, you said that you were born with your biotics?"

"Yes to both, why?"

"Because biotics are caused by Ezo nodules embedding themselves in the nervous system and body tissues. When this happens, you can usually also find some in the bloodstream. And yet, you have no Ezo in your body whatsoever. Not in your bloodstream, your nervous system… hell, not even you brain! So how you have biotics…" he stopped then, as if he was too tired to speak, and allowing for a somewhat dramatic pause.

"But what about Asari?" Satris questioned. "Don't they all have biotics from birth?"

"Not like you. Asari are born with Ezo nodules in their body tissues and nervous systems. Why or how, we don't know, but they do. You, however, have none in your body _whatsoever_."

"Then how…?"

"I have no idea."

Satris walked over to the orb. It seemed familiar to him, calling him to it. He opened the door of the closet and touched it. He fell to the ground immediately, unconscious. Garret rushed to him and held him up, trying to wake him. He saw his eyes moving rapidly underneath their lids. He called down Malyssa and Ann, and called an ambulance. He didn't know what was happening, but he wanted to make sure Satris would be okay.

* * *

_Satris looked around him. He was in some sort of underwater cave, somewhere on an unknown planet. In front of him loomed a reaper, but not a reaper. For one, it was organic, not synthetic. He followed the shape with his eyes. It must have been at least two kilometres high, and was looking right at him._

"_Come." Satris heard the word in his mind, a great, booming voice that made his head want to explode, yet felt good at the same time. The vision began to fade, and Satris felt himself be tugged back into reality._


	11. Chapter 10

Satris opened his eyes on blinding light. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the luminosity of the hospital room, most of it coming from outside the glass wall, which looked out onto the presidium. He sat up, guessing what had happened. He almost jumped when Malyssa suddenly appeared at his side, a look of relief on her face. She cried out to someone in the hall that he was awake. He groaned as extreme pain burst into his head when the sound reached his ears, falling back onto the bed he was laying on. Malyssa ran over.

"Satris, are you okay?"

"No, Maly, I'm _not_ okay," he said somewhat sarcastically. "I feel like someone just let off a nuke in my head-AAARGH!" He was cut off by a cry of pain as loud thumping footsteps rushed into the room.

"Is he alright?" Satris recognized the voice of Doctor Chloe Michelle even as it sent yet another burst of pain in his head.

"I might be if everyone would just QUIET DOWN A LITTLE! ... Okay, much better," he said as the two women fell silent. "Doc, I am fine, I just have one of the nastiest headaches. Give me an aspirin and I should be alright."

"Well, given that the tests have shown nothing out of the ordinary, I think that would be fine. Let me just see what we have as pain medication…" her voiced died down as she walked out of the room."

Satris and Malyssa stayed where they were in silence, silence that was broken by Satris's question.

"Maly, how long was I unconscious?"

"A few hours, why?"

"I…I had a…vision…of some sort. The same as the nightmare I had last night."

"What was it about?"

"I'm somewhere underwater in this huge assembly of caverns, with some sort of organic, living reaper in front of me, and it says 'come'. That's all. Then it just swims away and I get pulled back to reality. The worst part is, the reaper seems familiar, like an old friend I haven't seen in years. And it's scaring the shit out of me."

"Let's wait for that aspirin and go home, shall we?"

"Sure thing."

At that moment doctor Michelle walked back into the room, a couple of the demanded aspirins in her hand. She handed them to Satris who swallowed them immediately before saying a word of thanks and leaving the room, Malyssa in his stead.

They had just walked into the lounge when Satris was sure he saw the familiar face of a Drell. After approaching quietly, he saw his suspicions confirmed. His jaws parted.

"Thane Krios," he breathed out, his voice almost below a whisper.

The assassin's head turned just enough for him to notice the person who had spoken his name. His brow lifted in surprise when he saw on the two alliance soldiers standing a few feet behind him, a second before his face lit up slightly as he recognized his old martial arts student. The latter walked up beside him, his hands joined behind his back. Malyssa walked over to a bench, guessing the two needed time. They stood side by side in silence for a few minutes. It was Satris who started the conversation.

"I haven't seen you in a while Thane, how've you been?"

"Good, good."

But Satris noticed the croak in his old mentor's voice, the half-hearted tone his voice, heard his irregular breathing.

"How long?" Satris's tone had turned to ice.

Thane figured he had guessed. "I've had it for a few years now; I doctors say should die of it in a few months."

"Why didn't you contact me? I could have helped!"

"I needed time to clear my head, avenge a death."

"I heard. How was it in the collector base?"

"Strange."

"I would expect so. How's Kolyat?"

"Okay, I guess."

"A son needs his father. Talk to him."

"One day, perhaps."

"You know, I know of something that could get you back into top shape, at least temporarily. Cratix has been taking it for years. He calls it _remedianem_."

"I will decline this time. I have things to do here."

Satris sighed. "Very well. See you around."

All he received in response was a grunt, although he was sure he saw the beginning of a smile appear at the corners of Thane's mouth. He walked towards the elevator and Malyssa caught up to him. The door opened suddenly and a small crew of doctors rushed by, pushing a hospital bed along, nearly crashing into them. Satris managed to take a good look at the patient –enough to recognize her even covered in bruises– and a single thought crossed his mind. Ashley Williams. They stepped inside and he lifted his fingers his ear, activating the communicator.

"Echoes, our mission just started. Commander Shepard is on the Citadel."


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Satris looked down at the crowds below, or, to be exact, a specific person in the crowd. His eyes followed Commander Shepard through the binoculars as he hung from the 'ceiling' of the presidium, or more specifically, the shopping district. He had been following him constantly without being noticed whatsoever since early that morning. After a week of his squad doing so, however, it was becoming an obviously useless task. Shepard could handle himself, and there were more urgent matters to attend to, mainly the customization of their new ship, moving from their old to their new one, etc. They needed a way to hide themselves when they were directly beside–or at least close enough to be seen by–the _Normandy._ Cratix had been hard at work all week working on some secret project or other that would supposedly fix this problem, and when Satris had talked to him the night before, it was clear he was nearly finished.

He detached the magnetic cable on his belt from the ceiling with a flick of his wrist and fell, landing gracefully on his feet after executing a backflip, and using a little bit of biotics. He followed Shepard, staying a good 30 feet behind and a floor above. He continued to do so for a few hours, following him to stores, restaurants and meetings. When Erein came to replace him around 3:00 in the afternoon, Satris nodded with gratitude. He walked back to the apartment slowly, enjoying the view of the presidium. He then overheard a couple talking about the war with the reapers like it was a movie they had just seen and he grimaced with disgust, turning his head away. He hated having to be stuck here while others lost their lives fighting the reapers, and he hated even more the people who acted like it was nothing, as if it was just the bad dream of a crazed alliance commander or-

He stopped walking suddenly. He had arrived at the apartment without even realizing it. Shrugging of his bad mood, he opened the door and stepped in. He was greeted with the smell of food; when he walked into the kitchen he saw pasta, cheese, salad and many others. Malyssa was bent over another dish and looked up when she heard the door close.

"Satris! You're back!" she walked up to him and brushed his lips with a kiss.

"Hey Maly," he yawned.

"How was your morning?" she asked as she leaned on the counter.

"Long and boring. I find this mission is useless, at least for now. Shepard doesn't have any real enemies here, or at least none that have the balls to attack him." He walked over to the counter and began serving the places. "How's Crat?"

"I think he finished his project."

Satris paused. "How so?"

"A crap-ton of joyous cries and shouts coming from his lab, and then him telling us to call you and to tell you 'it' was ready."

Satris chuckled before resuming his task. "I should have guessed. He always does that."

They remained silent as the rest of the team sat down. Erein's absence went unnoticed; they all knew where she was, but Cratix came out of his lab for the first time in a week, and he kept jittering excitedly. They ate like a group of people usually did; talking, relaxing, eating and drinking. No one not of the group would have had any idea they were anything other than normal people gathered around a normal meal.

When the food was gone, however, and with Cratix waiting for Erein to arrive to show off his breakthrough, the team scattered. Graven went out to find his girlfriend, Miyajii and Cratix decided to watch a movie, and Malyssa asked Satris if he wanted to train. He accepted immediately and they went to the specially constructed training room in the large basement.

Training for the two of them wasn't what most people would expect. With most it had to do with exercises and running on a treadmill. With them it was sparring with melee weapons. They walked up to the weapon rack and each grabbed a wooden sword –they could easily train together with the real deal, but accidents were better avoided– and began sparring, a mix of slashes, lunges, flips and other moves they had learned over the years. Satris ran at Malyssa, his sword raised at an angle, and swung it forward with a strong shoulder strike, which was parried by the shadow. He flipped over her, his body flying high in the air and his sword placed below him, pointing at the ground. She raised her sword in response and they struck together. Satris landed lightly and Malyssa smiled; now it was her turn. She rushed Satris –who evaded back rapidly– and threw one of the throwing knives she had also taken from the weapons rack. It flew true to its target and… passed directly through him and he phased out and back to his position, making the throwing knife fly into the wall. He then phased again, appearing behind her and bringing down his sword, which she rapidly deflected before cartwheeling over him, using him as a propulsion mechanism. She landed on her feet, facing away from him, and flipped her sword, the blade now protruding from the bottom of her hand, and thrust it backwards, hitting Satris square in the back. He fell to the ground, managing to recover enough to perform a shoulder-roll. He turned around and phased his way across the room in a pattern that would confuse even the fastest computer, and managed to 'stab' Malyssa in the upper chest, only just below her neck. They remained frozen in that pose for a few moments, panting and sweating, before they broke off, smiling, bowed to each other the way they had learned to when training in martial arts, and walked over to the weapon rack to put back the items they took. They walked out of the training room and headed to their 'quarters'. Malyssa stopped in the kitchen, pretexting that she needed some water, which Satris could easily understand. He walked into the bathing room: a large room with a fair-sized tub in the middle. He undressed himself, leaving his clothes in a pile in the corner of the room, and walked to the large ornamental taps. He turned on the first one, followed closely by the second, and walked over to the steps, lowering himself into the rapidly filling tub. When it was full, the water level easily arrived to his shoulders, so he placed himself on one of the higher 'benches' and waited for the water level to get to full. He closed his eyes, letting his mind wander in all the memories he had, good and bad, which he could never forget. He didn't notice her until he felt her glide to him through the water, closing her arms around his neck. Malyssa trailed a path of kisses up his neck, scattering his thoughts. Satris let his mind focus on the present.

* * *

Graven had always disliked the citadel. Even with his job forcing him to go there many times a month, he always felt out of place in the midst of all the grandeur. Perhaps his upbringing had something to do with it, as he had been raised in a poor town in Russia, from which he had left after his entire family had died in a fire, years before. He had been twelve when it had happened, had been twelve when he trudged his way through the cold and harsh environment. And had been twelve when he had been kidnapped by a group of fanatics calling themselves Cerberus. He had escaped thanks to one of their own, who had told Graven his name was Electrotron, and had then joined the Alliance, getting put in a program known then as the N7 initiative, training operatives in specialisation classes, and this had happened in the N7 academy that was years old by then, the same one commander Shepard had gone to. What the alliance did was take a select few, of all ages and experience, and had trained them to be stronger, faster, all in all, better soldiers on the battlefield, or even when commanding others. He had fallen in love with Erein at a distance, and had only mustered up the courage to talk to her a few weeks before their N5 ceremony. It was amazing how shy a young giant could be, as even back then, when he was twenty-one, he preferred to stay alone. He shook his head. They had all changed so much since then. He looked up as he realized he had arrived at his destination. His gaze travelled across the veranda of a small café. They spotted Shepard first, then his girlfriend. Graven walked over to Erein, who was drinking a cup of coffee, and sat down in the chair facing her. Her blind gaze traveled to him.

"How's your afternoon been?" he asked with his heavy Russian accent.

"Good enough. It's tiring work."

Graven chuckled. "I can bet. Do you want to go do anything? We have some time to spare before we have to get back to the apartment."

"Let's go for a walk," she said as a smile began to spread across her face.

They rose up from their seats and crossed the veranda to exit the little café, hand-in-hand. As they passed Shepard, Erein flicked her wrist, throwing a small tracking chip the size of a hair-tip onto the commander's neck. They doubted anything bad would happen to him, but it was better to take precautions. They wandered around the presidium, looking at shops, or just looking at the view.

After a while, Graven became aware of a group of people following them, and Erein noticed one or two that kept ahead of them. Guessing how the situation was going to unfold, the couple walked into a deserted, enclosed corridor. As they expected, the group followed them in. with a sigh of annoyance, Graven leaned against a mirror-like wall. In it he could see the group. A few humans, a Batarian, a Turian and an Asari who seemed to be in charge. The group approached casually, but Graven and Erein were no fools. When they had enclosed to about ten meters, Graven spoke up without even bothering to turn his head.

"You six must be stupider than you look if you thought we hadn't noticed you."

"And you are even bigger fools for cornering yourselves like this," the Asari replied.

"Who said we cornered ourselves?"

At that moment, the batarian and humans sprang into action. They ran down the corridor, expecting Erein to be an easy target and expecting Graven to be slow because of his massive size. They greatly miscalculated. Erein phased behind them, creating a biotic shockwave when she reappeared, destabilizing them, and Graven punched them, sending them flying across the corridor, in the time it took the Asari to blink in disbelief. Graven looked up at her and she finally began to realise how bad of an idea attacking them had been.

"You still want to fight now?" Graven spoke with barely concealed anger.

The Turian walked over to the Asari and whispered something in her ear.

"I give you ten seconds to back away before I punch a hole through each and every one of you," Graven continued.

"Very well," the Asari said. "If you want a fight, HAVE IT!"

She launched a biotic throw at Graven, but it just glanced off him. He then charged at her and grabbed her by collar, picking her up like a rag-doll and throwing her into the wall. Her body went in about half a meter before stopping. Meanwhile, Erein took out the Turian with relative ease, phasing behind him and roundhouse kicking him across the back of the head, knocking him out in one shot. She then bioticaly slammed the batarian –who had gotten back up– sending him flying up and crashing to the ground. Leaving the now bruised and bloodied assailants behind, Graven and Erein returned to the apartment.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**a week after the reaper invasion**

Malyssa looked at the unconscious form of Satris who was sleeping beside her. She knew it was good for him to get sleep, what with the strange nightmares waking him up nearly every night. He thought she didn't notice, but she did, more than he realised. She propped herself up on her right elbow to be more comfortable before walking her fingers up the middle of his chest, ending at his chin. She then traced the details of his face with her index finger, swirling it around on his mouth, his eyes, his nose. She passed her finger over his scars: a small, faint one under his left eye given to him by Elyx when they were kids, another small one high up on his nose, the consequence of playing around with a shovel when he was eight. After following this last line, she began twirling his dark blond locks of hair in her fingers. Until a few months ago, he had kept it short, but now the straight strands were reaching his shoulders on the back of his neck, and they were more than halfway down his neck everywhere else but his forehead. Malyssa smiled. He looked so… peaceful. Since the attack on Earth, he had seemed to be incapable of laughing or smiling, he was always so serious. Even asleep, most of the time, he was agitated and had a permanent frown on his face. It was good to see him like this. Malyssa lay down on her side, draping her left arm over Satris's chest and resting her head in the crook of his neck. Her breathing slowed and she fell asleep.

* * *

Satris's eyes opened. He couldn't remember much of his dream, only that it had been peaceful. He had been walking in a forest… yes, that was it, but what else? As much as he tried, nothing more came to mind. He shook his head and noticed Malyssa sleeping a ways away on his left, her bare back facing him. The corner of his mouth lifted in the beginning of a smile. He slid over and moved her hair off the back of her neck before lowering his head and kissing her olive-toned skin. She had tanned throughout the summer, but now her skin was returning to its natural color, becoming paler. He kissed the back of her neck again, closing his eyes. As he went in for a third, Satris was only mildly surprised to feel her lips instead of her neck. They lingered there, frozen in time. When finally they broke off, Satris opened his eyes and smiled.

"I thought you were asleep," he said in a joyous tone.

"I was, but I got woken up by a certain boyfriend of mine," she replied sleepily, turning around so as to face him.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and things may have proceded as they had in the bath if a knock hadn't sounded on their door at that moment. Miyajii's voice, muffled by the door, began to speak.

"Guys, I don't care if you are sleeping or doing unspeakable things to each other, its time you got up. Cratix is going to show us his project!"

Satris growled in annoyance. "OK, coming!"

The couple got dressed before exiting their room. Miyajii 'escorted' them to Cratix's lab on the top floor, where he, Graven and Erein were waiting for them. When they had all gathered around the central workbench, Cratix walked over to an object covered by a piece of cloth. He brought it back and laid it on the workbench.

"So, you all know our little conundrum: how are we supposed to be beside the Normandy without being seen. Well, I found the solution."

He lifted the cloth off to show… a plate like you would typically see on a ship. they all looked at it skeptically, none of them impressed.

"Crat, are you sure this is going to be of any use–"

"Wait one second, mate. I need to activate it."

Cratix lifted a switch that had, until then, gone unnoticed. The effects were noticed immediately: the lights seemed to dim, darkness began surrounding them, and the plate turned black. Not black like on a shirt or paint, but real black, like the void of space. Cratix quickly turned it off before it began absorbing the light from the rest of the house, and the team turned to him in stupefaction. Satris looked at the plate, then back at Cratix.

"My friend," he began, "you may have just made your second best invention ever."

"And that's not it; I think I can manage to make it into a coating so we can be off sooner."

Graven felt he needed to join the conversation. "That is a good idea. How soon can you have the coating?"

"It should be done in a few hours; I was already working on that."

"So tomorrow we begin work on the ship," Miyajii said.

"Yep. Okay Echoes, time to get some shut-eye," Satris replied. As they began to protest, he cut them off. "We need to get some sleep, and who's turn is it to watch Shepard tomorrow?"

Miyajii raised her robotic hand.

"That settles it." Looking at the slightly disappointed faces of his comrades, Satris gave in. "Alright, fine. We'll watch a movie or something," he rolled his eyes in annoyance, "but Miya, you had better be awake at 6:00 to watch Shepard, or I will… … … AH DAMN IT you guys are annoying. I can't stop you but I can't punish you if you get out of line either." He shook his head in annoyance and made a noise sounding like a growl. "Just make sure you're where you need to be when you need to be there Miya."

He stormed off before any of them could reply, needing to run off his steam. He was aware of Malyssa following him, but he didn't need to talk, he needed to _do_ something. He walked out of the front door and began to run. He ran for… he didn't know how long he ran –well, 'ran', it was more like extreme parkour–, but he arrived at the one place he thought he never would have gone too. He opened the door to enter the Normandy, making sure to activate his tactical cloak. He walked around the ship, his feet making no noise after years of practice: he _had_ been trained as a Drell assassin when he was younger. He walked up the CIC, standing directly beside where lieutenant Moreau was sleeping in his pilot seat. He went down to the crew quarters, looking over their sleeping forms. He walked into the room of Liara T'Soni, who was too concentrated on her work to notice. He walked into the life support room, running his hand over the chair, the shelves, the railing. Thane had stayed here for a few months; he could still pick up small traces of his bio-signature. Had he liked it here? Or had he simply felt it was his duty. Satris shook his head. Before he left, he went to the first deck. He looked at the sleeping form of Shepard for a few minutes before walking over. There, he spoke to him, a few words.

"We are watching you. You, and your crew, will be safe. We protect from a distance. We are the Silent Echoes that ring throughout the night."

He went back down to the CIC and opened the exit door, but before he closed it he spoke once again.

"You will be safe. We are the guardian angels who are always present but never seen. We are the Silent Echoes."

And on that note, he turned around, closing the door and beginning the long walk back to his apartment.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**Two weeks after the reaper invasion**

Miyajii opened her eyes sleepily. She had no idea what had awoken her, but she decided to get the most of it. After a week of work 'painting' the ship, she would have expected herself to sleep easier, but sometimes that couldn't be helped. She sighed and slipped her feet off the bed, her legs following suite. Sitting, she picked up her neuro-prosthetic from the bedside table and put in on the stump of her right arm. Her arm tensed as microscopic needles in the prosthetic dove into her skin, attaching themselves to the nerves so as to receive the electrical signals from her brain. After her arm relaxed, she practiced moving her fingers, wrist and elbow to make sure everything was working correctly, then got dressed and walked out of her room. As soon as she entered the hallway, she began hearing noise. She guessed it was Cratix, and as soon as she entered the living room, she saw she was correct. Cratix was on his Omni-tool, looking around the extranet for information, probably news about the reaper attacks so he could try to devise a strategy or tool to be used against them. Miyajii leaned on the doorframe, her prosthetic making a soft clunking noise. He jumped back to reality when he heard the noise, and his head turned to look at her. The corners of Miyajii's mouth rose in the beginning of a smile. That was Cratix, always trying to do something impossible to make people's lives better. She walked over to him and sat down beside him on the couch.

* * *

Cratix sighed. He had been up for hours trying to think of a way he could upgrade the Echoes' new ship's weapons to be more efficient against the reapers, but so far nothing had come up. All the clips he'd seen had been only a few seconds long, and only showed the reaper ships for a few milliseconds. Cratix massaged his forehead in annoyance. He had been diagnosed at a young age with an illness resembling Asperger's at first, but was actually not. When he was two and three he had difficulty coping with difficult situations and changes, but that had soon passed by, leaving him only with the other two side effects: his muscle cells refusing to grow in any way and the ability to understand how all machinery worked even if he had never seen it before, only by looking at in for a couple of seconds, which had befuddled the doctors, as no one had ever seen any illness that had symptoms that were even close to these ones. Sometimes he could "scan" tech on video, but the reapers were so complex he would have to find a way to look at one in person, and for a few minutes at least. He shook his head, ready to turn off his Omni-tool, when he heard a soft clunk. He turned his gaze to the hallway where Miyajii was leaning against the frame, her mouth beginning to form a smile. He signaled with his head for her to come in, watching her as she walked over to the couch at sat down beside him. He sighed inwardly. He loved her, but she didn't know that. He doubted she ever would, as he never seemed to be capable of mustering up the courage to tell her. It was never the right time, it seemed. He shook his head, and Miyajii seemed to take it as annoyance that he hadn't managed to do what he had set out to.

"Couldn't find anything useful?" she asked.

"Unfortunately not. The reapers are too advanced for me to be capable of scanning them through millisecond appearances in shaky videos. I need to see one myself, and for a few minutes if possible." He shook his head. "This is pissin' me off. We have to wait for Shepard to leave the citadel so we can follow him, which means we pretty much have to sit around with our thumbs up our asses while he walks around and talks to people. I know he has to do it, and I understand why, but it still pisses me off."

Miyajii edged closer to him, putting her arm over his shoulder to comfort him.

"Sometimes you just got to live with what happens, Crat. Considering how the galaxy was unwilling to accept that the reapers existed, I think things are going well. I know you want to help, but the reapers are more advanced than anything we've ever encountered. Nothing says you would be capable of scanning them."

"I know, but I just feel useless here. We have nothing to do, no one to take out, no real objectives, nothing." He slammed his fist on the table. "It isn't fair that innocents should die because we are stuck here!"

"Perhaps," Miyajii stood up and began walking out of the living room, "but until we begin seeing some action, we should get some rest, or we won't be capable of fighting when it counts."

She walked out into the corridor, and Cratix heard her footsteps becoming fainter and fainter as she got farther away. Resting his elbows on his knees and locking his fingers together, he rested his head on his hands and let out a tired sigh.

**Author's note: sorry this chapter is a little short, but I couldn't think of a way to have it longer, as when you are writing about two tired characters, you can't hope for much conversation.**


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**One month after the beginning of the Reaper War**

"GO! GO! GO!"

The white and navy-blue Armiger legion Turian shouted out the order, and Satris ran into the building, covered by Graven and the Turian while the rest took out the dimishing amount of Reaper husks. They ran through, annihilating the Reaper forces, until they arrived at the objective. The door opened and Satris walked in, Dual Hurricanes out. The room was empty, but a strange noise could be heard. The rest of the squad came in, but stayed close to the door. Satris hurried towards the noise and-

"Oh shi-"

The Bomb, a Cerberus insignia on the side, blew up in his face.

**Three hours earlier…**

Satris walked over to the cockpit, as Alex, his pilot, said the Turians were being a pain. They had arrived a little while before Shepard, Orders, and had been told to head to the actual planet. He walked over to Alex and opened Comms. "Palaven this is the SSV Silent Echo, we have orders to help fight the reaper forces. Permission to land?"

After a few moments a Turian comms officer spoke up. "Permission granted, major Rahkhaza. Please head to the given coordinates."

The SR2 flew through the void and into the atmosphere, evading all reapers it came across. It landed without too much difficulty at the given coordinates, and Satris walked out, flanked by the rest of his team. They ran through the ruined streets and soon found a group of Turians trying to extract some civilians caught in a building, while Reaper forces, including some kind of Turian Husks, assaulted them. Satris and his team came into action, and after a few minutes of ranged fighting they managed to win a breather. The group of Alliance Marines walked in and a Turian private walked up.

"Thanks for that, we would've been gone if-"

"Satris! Good to see you!"

A Turian in white and navy-blue armor walked up before taking off his helmet, revealing his pale gray face and light blue tribal markings, as well as his yellowish green eyes and slit pupils.

Satris smiled under his helmet. "Good to see you too, Ichonor."

The Turian smiled back. "We have a building of civilians we need to evacuate. Two blocks south." He leaned forwards. "She's in there too."

Satris understood. Ichonor's girlfriend, Aeyna Vakarian. "Okay then, let's get to work."

The next couple of hours passed swiftly as they extracted the civvies by small groups as they headed back to a temporary 'headquarters'. Then they returned to the building to set up a plan of attack to get to the other building. Satris went to the roof with Ichonor. They both took out their snipers and used them as binoculars to survey the building.

"Damn. Those civvies of yours are good with a gun."

"We all serve the state some way in our early life, probably some ex-soldiers in there."

"I say we take some of your Armigers and split them in between me, you and Erein. Me and Er will go on the rooftops, you go down the middle. We'll cover you."

"Sounds good."

They went back down and explained their plan to the others. Most were fine with it, but Malyssa and Graven seemed a little reluctant. It was always hard to see your loved ones go somewhere where you couldn't help them if things went wrong. The three groups separated, and then the two rooftop ones went to the roof. Satris' group was going to be jumping the street, and they hurried to do so so that they could set out. Once everyone was good to go, the three groups set out, the two roof top ones covering the groundside. After half an hour of husk shooting, they arrived at the building. The groundside team went in, disappeared for a few minutes, and Cratix came out and signaled with his Omni-shield for them to get down. Satris and his team jumped into the streets, followed by Erein's. They hurried inside, meeting with a rapidly made barricade. Satris noticed Ichonor off to the side, standing close to a female Turian. The soldiers began treating the wounded, and Ichonor came over.

"We have a problem. Aeyna says that a group of Cerberus troopers were nearby not that long ago. A building, about two blocks away."

"So we head there and take them and any Reapers out."

"I'll leave my team here to help with Evac."

"Sounds good."

After making sure that the shuttles would get there, the Silent Echoes walked out of the building, hurrying to their destination and keeping low. When they got there, they indeed saw Cerberus troopers. Cratix and Graven got up, Miniguns raised, and began tearing them apart. Satris, Malyssa and Erein charged the lines, taking them out with biotic explosions and tech abilities, as well as their swords. After a few minutes of fighting, they ran into the complex, killing anything in their way. They arrived at a large door, that shouldn't of been there. They placed themselves on the sides, Satris remaining in the middle. Ichonor's voice rang out

"GO! GO! GO!"

…

**Apologies for having been AWOL for so long, but I joined an RP in late December, and that, mixed with a lack of ideas, meant I was taking a bit of a break. SO I'll hopefully be posting chapters a bit more regularly from now on. **


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Cerberus Phantom P-354 walked among the wreckage of the building, still smoking from the bomb's explosion. Corpses of reaper troops littered the ground, mixed with Turians. A combat engineer walked over to her.

"**They're all dead. Something strange though. One of the Turians we saw enter is gone.**"

"**Deal with it, then.**"

The phantom kept walking through the wreckage, picking her way across the rubble. She kicked at a stone, it flew away and hit something out of her vision with a clang. Curious, she walked over, a hand on the sword sheathed on her back. She walked over to a large hunk of metal, from which an arm was coming out of. A human arm. The rock had hit the black shoulder pad. With a movement from her hand, a squad of Assault Troopers hurried over, then moved the slab to uncover a human in armor similar to Kai Leng's. The head was turned to the side, but she could tell that the visor was broken from where she was. The chest plate was wrecked, but a thin layer was still protecting the body underneath. The Nano-weave had taken the force of the impact, but hadn't broken or torn. She grabbed the handle of her sword and took it off her back, then poked the human with the tip, with no reaction. He was undoubtedly dead. Just to be certain, she used her blade to move the head to see the side of the face hit by the blast.

"**What the-**"

The other side of the face was covered in some kind of black, chitinous armor plates, not singed skin. The head lolled to the side, but, when she poked it again, the eye opened to show a glowing grayish forest green iris. The hand, in a movement too quick for her to perceive, grabbed the blade and pulled it out of her hand, the person jumped to his feet, disappeared, and then her sword was suddenly protruding from her chest, passing through the heart and spine. She fell to the floor, dead.

Satris let out a grunt of pain. His back was killing him, as were his muscles from being trapped under that slab of metal. He had no idea how he had survived the point-blank explosion, but he would deal with that later. He limped out of the building, making sure to not be seen by any of the Cerberus troops.

He walked through the ruined streets, evading reapers as much as possible. As he approached a ruined building, a husk jumped onto him, and he threw it to the ground and stomped on its head. He limped into the building and sat against a wall. His Black Widow was ruined, as was his Paladin. The Harrier was cracked through the middle, but his Hurricanes were fine. He sighed. His monomolecular blade had disappeared, but that could be remedied with the hidden blades in his vambraces. He was about the get up when he saw his reflection in a mirror. He recoiled, then took a better look.

"What the fuck?"

The right side of his face was covered in black chitinous plates, and his eye was covered in some sort of thin transparent bubble. The left side was still covered by the visor, but he could see from a small gap that it was still the same. He shook his head and looked away, certain he was hallucinating. He had to be, didn't he?

He exited the building, Hurricanes out, and immediately fell on an immense creature with a giant claw and an oversized Turian head. The creature rushed him, swinging the claw, and Satris did a backwards dive over it, landing in a roll before getting to his feet and being engulfed in the grayish forest green flames of his biotics. He jumped, his biotic aura propelling him, and smashed his glowing fist onto its back. The brutish creature simply turned around, flailing its claw, and hit him in the gut, making him fly into a wall. Stunned, he took a moment to catch his breath when he noticed the claw coming down on him again. He rolled to the side, then began spraying the creature with his Hurricanes. Unknown to Satris, the glow of his eyes became more and more intense, the one on his left side now showing through the black visor. Something took over the strange creature, and it froze before simply running off, jumping down to a lower level. Satris stared after it in confusion, not understanding what had happened.

"This day is getting weirder and weirder."


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Satris stumbled through the street, his vision blurring. He was clutching his right side, his right arm barely capable of keeping the Hurricane in its grip. He crouched behind a slab of rock as a Turian husk wielding a Phaeston came into view alongside a groups of cannibals. He sighed and waited until they had passed, then continued his movement, looking up at the ruined buildings, the grey metal looking reddish from the many fires throughout the city. All around him were ruined vehicles; skycars, tanks, the remains of a Turian fighter protruding from a nearby wall. He limped over to it, hoping to find something that he could use, but he was left disappointed, with only the handle of a Krysae sniper rifle, as well as a little bit of the barrel, appearing. Not even the body of the pilot. He sighed, then rolled into cover, barely managing to stop himself from groaning with pain, when he heard footsteps. A quick look over the pile of rubble showed him a group of husks along with one of the brutish creatures and another Turian husk. He breathed in quietly, hoping they wouldn't notice him, when a rock fell from the roof of a nearby building, right onto the pile of rubble he was hiding behind. The brute approached slowly, and Satris held his breath, cloaking. He was in no shape to use his biotics to phase, so he would just have to hope his luck would hold out. He pressed himself against the rubble, hoping the creature would leave. It closed in on his location, the ground trembling with each step it took. He could hear the synthetic parts of it whirring as it got closer and closer. Ten meters, eight meters, six meters, four meters, two meters-

It was standing right on top of the pile of rubble now, its red eyes scanning the exact spot where Satris was lying back. It raised its claw, then one of the Turian husks made a noise, and its head snapped back. It slowly lowered its giant claw-arm, then retreated, following the other husks. Once they were out of audio range, he uncloaked and let out a loud sigh of relief. He difficultly got up, still clutching his side, and began stumbling through the streets yet again, sounds of battle -gunfire, explosions, screams- slowly getting louder.

After about a half hour of walking and stumbling, he began to hear another group of Reaper troops. Looking around and seeing that there was nowhere he could hide in time, he let go of his throbbing side and took the second Hurricane off of his left thigh, still clutching the other in his right hand. He activated his Biotic Barrier with great difficulty, with it only wearing him out even more. Soon enough, the head of a husk, then three, then five, then Cannibals, then the Turian husk, then another brutish creature. The husks saw him first, and they began to rush at him. With a swear, he fired on them, mowing them down with the dual SMGs. His arms, however, couldn't take the usual stress from fighting the recoil, and he nearly dropped them. He placed them on his side and activated a spherical biotic barrier around him just as the brutish creature charged, only just managing to block it. Suddenly, The head of one of the Turian husks exploded, soon followed by the rest. As the brutish creature turned its gaze, its head exploded as well. Vision swimming, Satris only just was capable of 'shutting down' the barrier before he fell to the ground, a strange throbbing in the right side of his face. He heard the distorted noise of rapid, heavy footsteps approaching, and soon he felt himself being lifted, someone under each arm carrying him, his feet dragging. After a time –Seconds? Minutes? Hours? He couldn't tell- he felt himself being deposited on something hard. Soon, he heard someone shouting something, but the noise was so distorted that he couldn't tell what, or who. He felt hands on his face, then, someone was detaching his ruined chest plate, then his helmet. His boots came off right after, leaving him only in his nanoweave suit. He felt himself being picked up again and deposited into something, then someone sitting down beside his head. The last thing he remembered before he blacked out was his name being whispered by a slow, distorted voice, over and over again.

**A few hours earlier…**

Malyssa reloaded her Valiant after shooting off the head of yet another Cerberus trooper. As she aimed at a Centurion, his shield came down, courtesy of Cratix's Energy Drain, and she sent a round in between his eyes. After a few minutes, they received a message from Ichonor to head on down. The group began climbing down, but, as soon as they reached the rubble-strewn bottom, the building exploded.

Malyssa rolled into cover as a boulder hit the spot where she had been standing instants before. Fire and rocks flew everywhere, lighting up the already red sky. Cratix opened up his dual Omni-shields and set them down, blocking any rocks that otherwise would have hit the Turians and the other Echoes, with Ichonor, Satris and Graven having charged the building with some of the Armigers, and grinded them to pieces. He moved with the two immense shields to get the group to cover, a rock hit the corner of Malyssa –who was peeking out from behind her cover-'s helmet, knocking her head to the side and projecting her to the ground. Once everything had calmed down, she slowly got to her feet. She turned around to look at the wreckage and, seeing the near complete destruction of the building, had only one thought.

_Satris…_

She began running towards the wreckage, flying over the rocks and rubble, flipping over boulders.

"SATRI-"

Her shriek was cut off as Cratix grabbed her from behind and stopped her. "Hey, calm down. He may have gotten out."

They sat down and soon enough Ichonor and Graven were returning, armor worse for wear but otherwise unscathed. Satris, however, was nowhere to be seen. Malyssa turned to look at the Turian.

"Satris…?"

"No idea, but he was directly in front of the bomb when it went off."

Malyssa fell to the ground with a painful sound, but was caught by Graven rapidly. Ichonor walked over. "Maly… Look, I'm sorry. There was nothing I could do."

The Shadow simply nodded slowly, still under the effects of shock.

"Maly… we have to leave."

The woman's head snapped up. "There're still Reaper forces. We have to fight."

…

Malyssa sat beside Satris' unconscious form in the Hammerhead as it was piloted back to the Silent Echo, stroking his hair gently. She had no idea how he had survived the blast, but she didn't care, either. She bent down to kiss him before lying down on the bench.

Satris opened his eyes on the same underwater cavern, lit green by something close by, fading to a blue-black in the distance. Soon enough, the organic Reaper appeared and stopped in front of him and spoke in the slow, thundering voice.

**You evolve quickly. Your arrival must not be delayed.**

**Come.**


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Ferün'Reegar snuck through the ruins of a small town. He was doing his best to stay out of the sun on Haestrom, and the best way he could to that was sticking to the shaded patches of the white-stoned city. He froze when he heard a slight clunk.

_You know, for once I wish my suit was white…_

Indeed, his ochre plated envirosuit, with shoulder pads scavenged from a set of Crisis armor, which were the same crimson as his realk, fully hooded unlike most male Quarians', was not exactly good camouflage. He waited for the thumping to go away, then continued his sneaking. He looked up in front of him, the small hole in the wall present where it should be, with a pile of white rubble and dust underneath it. A large crack continued from it, going up and out of his view. He began edging towards it when he heard another set of heavy footsteps and froze yet again.

_*Kazuat! Better not have seen me…_

The clunking footsteps faded once again, and Ferün continued his sneaking. He arrived at the edge, checked his Omni-tool to make sure there were no more of the robots around him, and dove into the opening. He waited for a few moments, then got up once he was sure the coast was clear.

A few minutes of sneaking later, he arrived at the Library of this particular city. The immense building was quiet, and a quick scan told him no Geth were anywhere near. With a sigh of relief, he walked into it and began jogging through the corridors. He arrived at a winding staircase and began walking down, trying to make as little noise as possible.

_Why couldn't Admiral Zorah ask an infiltrator to do this? I'm a pyro; I'm no good at all this sneaking!_

After a few minutes of descent, he arrived at the bottom floor. He began walking through the first corridor he saw, hoping to find something. He was lucky, and arrived at the master console quickly. Opening his Omni-tool, he began downloading all the information on it. A few minutes passed, and soon enough he had the data.

As soon as he had closed his Omni-tool, he received a metal elbow to the back of the head. He rolled and took out his heavy Phalanx pistol, firing at the shimmering form of the Geth hunter. The blue laser sight showed him where to aim, and he had soon put it out of commission. With a sigh, he began running away.

_Got to get back to the shuttle!_

…

Satris' eyes fluttered open onto the bright white ceiling of the Silent Echo's med-bay. He tried to sit up, but a firm hand pressed on his chest and pushed him back into a lying position. He heard a muffled voice speaking and he turned his eyes to look at the blurred shape of whoever was standing beside him.

_Damn, eyesight is still blurry, ears aren't hearing correctly…_

_Not fully recovered._

He sighed and closed his eyes, doing his best to drift off into the realm of Morpheus.

…

Cratix walked towards the elevator, coming from the Armory, where he had just gotten out of his Inferno armour. Malyssa was with Satris in the med-bay, and the others were getting out of their armour in the room he had just left. He entered the elevator and descended to Engineering, where he walked to the engine room and looked around. The ship had taken a few hits while they left the atmosphere, and he had a feeling that there were internal repairs necessary. He was proven right, and he settled down and got to work.

When he was done, he activated his Omni-tool and began scanning the extranet for any possible information on the Reapers. He sat down, his back to the wall, and scanned through, the outside world blotted out by his concentration. He didn't hear the footsteps until she crouched down beside him.

"Crat, you okay?"

The Paladin nearly jumped, then calmed down when he saw Miyajii. He smiled and nodded.

"I'm fine, Mi."

The shorter, dark-blond haired woman looked at him sympathetically with her electric blue eyes. She hated seeing him like this, and the loss of fight in his tone only added to her hurt. Will a sad half-smile, she sat down beside him, the dark blue of her suit melding with the blue-gray of the walls. She put an arm around her good friend, his brown-red semi-curled hair ticking her exposed forearm. She leaned her head on his shoulder and looked at the video.

"Still nothing?"

Cratix froze for a moment when Miyajii leaned on him, his heart swelling even though he was beginning to grow tired.

"No… Nothing."

Miyajii took his left hand in her own, mechanical right one, deactivating the Omni-tool at the same time.

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself, Chris. You know that."

Cratix nodded when she used the abbreviation of his first name instead of his nickname, something only she did, and only when she was truly worried about him. He leaned his head on top of hers.

"I know… I just… I feel like I should be doing something more, and I can't."

"It isn't your fault, Chris."

"It doesn't feel that way."

"Look, they're already starting to build this 'Crucible'. It's the best hope we have."

"Yeah…"

"Get some rest. You sound tired."

"I am."

"Then get to your bunk and have some shut-eye. You need it."

The Paladin nodded and got to his feet, then stumbled forwards into the wall. With a smirk, Miyajii got up and put an arm under his shoulder, then began helping him to the elevator. Once it stopped at the Crew Quarters level, she helped him to his bunk and lay him down, then bent over him.

"Sleep, Chris."

With that, she kissed him on the forehead and then walked out of the room, leaving him alone in the darkness. His mind at peace, as it always was after she managed to calm him, he closed his eyes, eyelids leaden, and drifted off to sleep.

…

Graven finished his quick calibrations of the fore' guns and then headed to the med-bay, where Erein was getting a couple bullet wounds fixed up. He walked over to the door and opened it.

"Ah! That stings!"

"You'd think that with you not saying a word at the bullet wounds, this wouldn't affect you that much."

Erein was seated on a bed in relatively sparse clothing as the ship's doctor, Ivan, finished closing the last wound on her thigh. The N7 Destroyer walked over to the two and put an arm around Erein as the doctor walked away and she bent her leg experimentally. The tall Russian smiled and sat down beside her.

"All good?"

"Yep."

Erein moved out of his embrace and put her clothing back on before going back to her prior position. She let her long brown hair fall along his back as she pressed herself against his shoulder. Graven smiled and bent down, kissing her gently.

"That was close; you took more than a few hits going to grab Satris."

"I couldn't just leave him there! And besides, I was the only one who could have gotten there fast enough."

"I'm not arguing with you, my love, just making sure you're okay."

The N7 Fury raised her blind eyes to 'look' at him, then reached up and kissed him gently.

"Well, thank you."

Graven smiled, even though he knew she couldn't see it.

"You're welcome, Er."

Erein turned her head, as the doctor had finished his work, and then set her sightless eyes on the floor, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. A mischievous smile formed on her lips and she turned to Graven.

"Well, my wounds are healed, how about a little… celebration… for a mission well done?"

Graven sighed.

"I'll admit, it's… tempting, but I don't want your wounds to reopen."

"I'll be fine."

"Are you certain, Er?"

"Yes, Graven," he smiled widened, and she reached up to kiss him, "I am."

The Russian giant sighed and stood.

"I can see I won't be capable of changing your mind…"

"Not in a million years, my love."

The Fury stood and, taking Graven's hand, pulled him out of the room and to theirs, across the mess hall. She pulled him inside and locked the door, then jumped up and began kissing him passionately. The Destroyer put his arm under her thighs to support her, then carried her over to the bed and dropped her onto it, crawling on top of her.

**And another chapter come and gone. I have to say I was having trouble with ideas to put into it, but I think it turned out well enough :D**


End file.
